title: Direct and indirect generation of waste in the Spanish paper industry.
abstract: The paper industry has a relatively high degree of reliance on suppliers when compared to other industries. Exploring the role of the paper industry in terms of consumption of intermediate inputs from other industries may help to understand how the production of paper does not only generate waste by itself but also affects the amount of waste generated by other industries. The product Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) is a useful analytical tool to examine and assess environmental impacts over the entire life cycle of a product "from cradle to grave" but it is costly and time intensive. In contrast, Economic Input Output Life Cycle Assessment Models (IO-LCA) that combine LCA with Input-Output analysis (IO) are more accurate and less expensive, as they employ publicly available data. This paper represents one of the first Spanish studies aimed at estimating the waste generated in the production of paper by applying IO-LCA. One of the major benefits is the derivation of the contribution of direct and indirect suppliers to the paper industry. The results obtained show that there was no direct relationship between the impact on output and the impact on waste generation exerted by the paper industry. The major contributors to waste generation were the mining industry and the forestry industry.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Regional Development, University of Granada, Granada 18071, Spain. Electronic address: Soraya_rp@ugr.es.
authors.forename: Soraya María
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Ruiz Peñalver
authors.forename: Mercedes
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Rodríguez Molina
authors.forename: José Antonio
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Camacho Ballesta
mesh_terms: D003625:Data Collection; D004777:Environment; D016468:Forestry; D007220:Industrial Waste / Q000032:analysis*; D008906:Mining; D018803:Models, Economic; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010209:Paper; D013030:Spain; D018505:Waste Management / Q000379:methods
chemical_list: D007220:Industrial Waste
keywords: Input output life cycle assessment model; Paper industry; Suppliers; Waste generated